Earticle

Effects of artificial holes on the cooling efficiency of single grain YBCO bulk superconductors were studied. Single grain YBCO bulk superconductors without artificial holes, with six 2.4 mm holes and six holes filled with Bi-Pb-Cd-Sn metal solder were fabricated by a top-seeded melt growth process for powder compacts with/without holes. Simulation for the cooling rate to a liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K) of YBCO samples was carried out using a finite element method (FEM) and the results are compared with the actual cooling rates of samples in liquid nitrogen. The simulated cooling times for the YBCO sample without holes, with six holes and with six holes filled with the metal solder were 80, 47 and 75 sec. respectively, which are similar to the actual cooling times of 84, 52 and 78 sec. estimated for the same samples cooled in liquid nitrogen. The shorter cooling time of the sample with artificial holes are attributed to the increased surface areas associated with the presence of artificial holes. The metal filling into the holes did not give any remarkable effect on the cooling efficiency.

Superconducting windings of synchronous machine have to be operated in below the critical temperature, critical current density and critical magnetic field. If one of these characteristics does not satisfied, then the quench occurred in superconducting winding. Especially the armature current dramatically increased as the super- conducting generator is short-circuited at the rated load condition and magnetic field in field winding increased due to the armature current. Therefore, damper is required to reduce the magnetic field of field winding which increases reliability of the superconducting generator. Damper dimension can be decided by time constant[1-2]. In this paper the basic model is high-power and low-speed superconducting generator. Damper time constant was calculated from the changed damper thickness and material. Magnetic flux of field coil at the basic model and changed damper time constant model is analyzed.

Usually, the AC loss from the superconducting element of an SFCL due to the load current is very small because it is composed of the combination of bifilar windings with very small reactance. Although the AC loss is small enough, we should be albe to predict for the design and control of the cryogenic system. In fact, an SFCL for the transmission voltage class may not generate ignorable AC loss because of the inevitable space between the HTS wires for the high voltage insulation and cryogenic efficiency. To measure the AC loss dependency on the space between the 2G HTS wires with the width of 4.4 mm, we prepared an experimental setup which could adjust the distance between the wires. We used two 500-mm length HTS wires in parallel and applied the current in the opposite direction for each wire to simulate a part of a current limiting module for a high voltage SFCL. We also put two couples of voltage taps at the ends of each wire and a cancel coil in the voltage measurement circuit to compensate the reactive component from the voltage taps. In this condition, we varied the distance between the wires to investigate the change of the transport current loss. A similar experimental study with HTS wire with the width of 12 mm is now in progress.

KEPCO Research Institute has been researching a Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) which is considered one of solutions of fault current problems with Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) and Hanyang University since 2011. In this paper, we fabricated a current limiting module and conducted electrical short circuit tests for checking the validity of the transmission level SFCL design. Based on the short circuit characteristics of the second generation High Temperature Superconductor (HTS), we analyzed the short circuit characteristics of 3 parallel connected superconducting wires. The structure of the HTS wire is as follows: the stainless steel stabilizer of 100 ㎛ is laminated on the superconductor layer and under the substrate, both of which are electrically jointed with solder. We fabricated the current limiting module which has 40 series and 6 parallel connections and studied the short circuit characteristics of the module under various voltage levels.

This paper presents the magnetic field analysis of the racetrack double pancake field coil for the 10 MW class superconducting wind turbine which is considered to be the next generation of wind turbines using the 3 Dimensional FEM(Finite Elements Method). Generally, the racetrack-shaped field coil which is wound by the second generation(2G) superconducting wire in the longer axial direction is used, because the racetrack-shaped field coil generates the higher magnetic field density at the minimum size and reduces the synchronous reactance. To analysis the performance of the wind turbines, It is important to calculate the distribution of magnetic flux density at the straight parts and both end sections of the racetrack-shaped high temperature superconductivity(HTS) field coil. In addition, Lorentz force acting on the superconducting wire is calculated by the analysis of the magnetic field and it is important that through this way Lorentz force can be used as a parameter in the mechanical analysis which analyzes the mechanical stress on the racetrack-shaped field coil.

This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of using no-insulation High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) coil in persistent current mode system. A HTS coil in persistent current mode system usually includes one or more non-superconducting joints in its circuit. And the current decaying rate of the coil is affected by the resistance of joint in persistent current circuit. If the resistance of joint is large, decaying rate of the current drastically increases. Therefore, reducing the joint resistance of the HTS coil is very important in persistent current mode system. In this paper, the no-insulation HTS coil is suggested as a way to reduce the joint resistance with the embedded parallel contact resistance naturally made by no-insulation winding method. Two small coils are fabricated with insulation and no-insulation winding method, and persistent current mode system experiment of each coil is preformed and analyzed.

The critical current of the HTS(High Temperature Superconductor) tape is governed by cooling temperature, magnetic field and its angle to HTS tape originated from its geometrical structure. At the HTS coil design stage, the critical current of the coil is calculated by considering the Ic-B characteristics of the 2G tape and the operating current is determined based on the critical current. The operating current and the structure of the 5 T coil are suggested through the FEM (Finite Elements Method) analysis and calculation. As a part of our on-going research on a 20 T LTS/HTS magnet, we have designed and constructed a 5 T HTS insert coil and tested it in liquid helium temperature.

An HTS racetrack-type coil without turn-to-turn insulation was characterized by critical current, sudden discharge, and over-current tests with respect to external pressures applied to the straight sections of the coil. The thermal stability of the non-insulated HTS racetrack-type coil was remarkably enhanced with increasing external pressure applied to the straight sections of racetrack-type coil. Furthermore, over-current test results confirmed that the non-insulated HTS racetrack-type coil with increased turn-to-turn thermal contact has the potential to be manufactured into field coils of HTS wind turbine generators with highly enhanced thermal and electrical stabilities.

Fixtures such as bushings in terminations of high temperature superconducting(HTS) power cable systems are subjected to high voltages, which have to transition from ambient to cryogenic temperatures. As such it is imperative to ensure the integrity of the dielectrics under all operating conditions, including thermal aspects brought about by the passage of current. Gaseous helium(GHe) at high pressure is regarded as a potential coolant for superconducting cables. The dielectric aspects of cryogenic helium gas are both complex and demanding. In this experimental study we looked at the interface between a smooth epoxy surface and high pressure helium gas in a homogeneous electric field. The alternating current(AC) flashover voltages of epoxy samples are presented. The results have been analyzed by using Weibull statistics. In addition to the behavior of the epoxy in gaseous helium as a function of pressure and temperature we also present data of the characteristics of the epoxy in mineral oil and in liquid nitrogen(LN2). The breakdown characteristics of a uniform field gap in gaseous helium as a function of pressure and temperature under AC, direct current(DC) and lightning impulse voltages are also given. Electric field calculations have been made for one of the experimental geometries in an attempt to explain some of the anomalies in the experimental results.

A linear compressor generates pulsating pressure and oscillating flow in a cryocooler such as Stirling cryocooler and pulse tube refrigerator. It is driven by AC power source and designed to operate at resonance of piston motion. The driving voltage level is determined by electric parameters of resistance, inductance and thrust constant of linear motor. From voltage equation on linear motor, the power factor of driving power is inherently less than 1. The phase difference between voltage and current of supplied power can be zero using capacitor and this can minimize a supply voltage level. Especially, the linear compressor of kW class requires high voltage and thus can cause a difficulty in selecting power supply unit due to limitation of voltage level. The capacitor in driving electric circuit is useful to settle this problem. In this study, the electric circuit of linear compressor is analytically investigated with assumption of mechanical resonance. The electric parameters of commercial linear motor are used in the analysis. The effects of capacitor on driving voltage level and power factor are investigated. From analytic results, it is shown that the voltage level can be mimized with using capacitor in driving electric circuit.

This paper describes experimental study on the orientation dependence of GM-type pulse tube refrigerator with helium and neon as working gas. A pulse tube refrigerator generates refrigeration work with gas expansion by gas displacer in the pulse tube. The pulse tube is only filled with working gas and there exists secondary flow due to large temperature difference between cold-end and warm-end. The stability of secondary flow is affected by orientation of cold-head and thus cooling performance is deteriorated by gas mixing due to secondary flow. In this study, a single stage GM-type pulse tube with orifice valve as a phase control device is fabricated and tested. The fabricated pulse tube refrigerator is tested with two different working gases of helium and neon. First, optimal valve opening and operating frequency are determined with experimental results of no-load test. And then, the variation of no-load temperature as orientation angle of cold-head is measured for two different working gases. Effect of orientation dependence of cold-head as working gas is discussed with experimental results.

Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) for hydrogen re-liquefaction operating between 24 K and 20 K has been designed. Dy0.9Gd0.1Ni2, whose Curie temperature is 24 K, is selected as a magnetic refrigerant. The magnetic refrigerant powder is sintered with oxygen-free high purity copper (OFHC) powder to enhance its effective thermal conductivity as well as to achieve relatively high frequency. A perforated plate heat exchanger (PPHE) operated with forced convection is utilized as a heat switch. The forced convection heat switch is expected to have fast response relative to a conventional gas-gap heat switch. A conduction-cooled high TC superconducting (HTS) magnet is employed to apply external magnetic field variation on a magnetic refrigerant. 2nd generation GdBCO coated conductor HTS tape with Kapton® insulation (SUNAM Inc.) will be utilized for the HTS magnet. The magnetization and demagnetization processes are to be achieved by the AC operation of the HTS magnet. The designed magnetic field and target ramp rate of the HTS magnet are over 4 T with 180 A and 0.4 T/s, respectively. AC loss distribution on HTS magnet is theoretically estimated.

In this paper, an investigation of a room temperature active magnetic regenerative refrigerator is carried out. Experimental apparatus includes two active magnetic regenerators containing 186 g of Gd spheres. Four E-type thermocouples are installed inside the Active magnetic regenerator(AMR) to observe the instantaneous temperature variation of AMR. Both warm and cold heat exchangers are designed for large temperature span. The cold heat exchanger, which separates the two AMRs, employs a copper tube with length of 80 mm and diameter of 6.35 mm. In order to minimize dead volume between the warm heat exchanger and AMRs, the warm heat exchangers are located close to the AMRs. The deionized water is used as a heat transfer fluid, and maximum 1.4 T magnetic field is supplied by Halbach array of permanent magnets. The AMR plate, which contains the warm and the cold heat exchangers and the AMRs, has reciprocating motion using a linear actuator and each AMR is alternatively magnetized and demagnetized by a Halbach array of permanent magnet. Since the gap of the Halbach array of permanent magnets is 25 mm and two warm heat exchangers have the motion through it, a compact printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is used as a warm heat exchanger. A maximum no-load temperature span of 26.8 K and a maximum cooling power of 33 W are obtained from the fabricated Active Magnetic Regenerative Refrigerator (AMRR).